U.S. Government-funded non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
that work to advance civil society in developing countries are
encountering new obstacles that impede their progress,
according to a recent staff study for the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee.

"Increasingly, governments around the world have tightened their
controls on foreign NGOs by passing laws to restrict their
ability to work independently from government approval," wrote
Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) in a transmittal letter.

There is a "backlash against democracy assistance," as the
National Endowment for Democracy put it in another study, which
is appended to the Senate report.

"In extreme cases, democracy promoters are being harassed by
authorities. In some nations governments have been able to
persuade their citizens that the work of NGOs and the financial
assistance provided to them by the USG is a form of American
interventionism," Sen. Lugar observed.

"Thus, in some countries opposition to pro-democracy NGOs is
cast as a reaffirmation of sovereignty," he wrote.

The new Senate study assessed the current status of programs in
Africa, Asia, Central Europe and Latin America, and proposed
principles and recommendations to guide further work of this
kind.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has issued new
doctrine on the conduct of electronic warfare.

"The recognized need for military forces to have unimpeded
access to and use of the [electromagnetic environment] creates
vulnerabilities and opportunities for electronic warfare (EW)
in support of military operations."

"The purpose of EW is to deny the opponent an advantage in the
EM spectrum and ensure friendly unimpeded access to the EM
spectrum portion of the information environment."

"EW can be applied from air, sea, land, and space by manned and
unmanned systems."

The constitutional allocation of war powers between Congress and
the President and the authority of Congress to restrict ongoing
military operations are considered in a new report from the
Congressional Research Service.

See "Congressional Authority To Limit U.S. Military Operations
in Iraq," January 29, 2007: